Robotic surgical systems are used in many surgical procedures in order to assist surgeons in precisely and accurately performing the procedures. Frequently, these procedures require precise placement of one or more implants and can be performed using minimally invasive techniques. Robotic surgical systems follow pre-planned or intra-operatively planned trajectories that assist the surgeon in placing implants while maintaining their intended alignment. Navigation markers placed throughout the surgical environment are used to register the environment (e.g., patient anatomy) with the robotic surgical system in order to properly orient the robot to the pre-planned or intra-operatively planned trajectories. Additionally, medical image data can be registered to the robotic surgical system to provide a model of the patient's anatomy for use in navigation.
Surgeons plan and monitor trajectories as well as monitor status of a robotic surgical system and a patient's anatomy during a procedure using a fixed display, for example, attached to or next to the robotic surgical system. Such a fixed display is the primary mechanism for navigating and monitoring a robotic surgical system during a procedure. This is especially true for minimally invasive procedures where a patient's anatomy obstructs direct view of the surgical site. However, fixed displays require a surgeon to divert his or her vision away from the surgical site and/or surgical tools that he or she is manipulating in order to obtain navigational information displayed on the screen. Moreover, the display screen can physically obstruct a surgeon's view of a portion of the surgical environment.